1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a system and a method, under the control of a computer, for the presentation of graphics, multimedia and video files integrated within a computer environment carried over the World Wide Web or the Internet and visualized on a screen using a graphic user interface (GUI). More specifically, this invention relates to a process, under the control of a computer, of embedding multiple tables within multiple table cells, in combination with pixel-accurate table and cell size attributes, to integrate graphics, multimedia and video files within a computer environment wherein such files can be played, downloaded, streamed or viewed as an integral part of such computer environment.
2. Description of Related Art
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a hypertext information and communication system used on the Internet, which is a global computer network, with data communications operating according to a client/server model using a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is a known communication protocol that provides users access to files using standard page description languages referred to as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language (DHTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), or JAVA. Files that are accessed using HTML, DHTML, XML or JAVA may be provided in different formats, such as text, graphics, images, sound, and video, among others. WWW, or web, functionality within data processing typically has been through the use of web browsers that allow for simple graphic user interface-based access to network servers. Two commercially available web browsers are Netscape Communicator.TM. (NSC) and Internet Explorer.TM. (IE).
Currently, the web is viewed daily by millions of people and viewership of the web is expected to more than double in the next few years. Businesses are learning how to use the web to sell their products and to enhance their image to a computer literate clientele. An increasing number of businesses are spending large quantities of time and resources to produce their web pages as a means of enhancing their corporate image. Such businesses would like to incorporate audio and video presentations into their web pages in a manner that would link the audio and video presentations with their corporation and its products.
Typically businesses embed their multimedia/video or presentation files into an HTML web page as an image or an applet (using the &lt;EMBED SRC&gt; or &lt;script language="JavaScript"&gt; tags) by placing the image within the web page's &lt;body&gt; and &lt;/body&gt; tags by itself or within a table cell. In addition, the presentation file may be text-wrapped by wrapping text either to the files' left or to its right in the page layout, either as a stand-alone image or as an image placed in a table cell. Currently text-wrapping a multimedia/video file represents the closest that a typical web page designer can get to incorporating such files into a web page layout. There is no option generally available for incorporating the multimedia/video file into another graphic file representing the web page's environment. Add to this that different browsers have different requirements that must be met to enable a viewer to play the multimedia/video files, thereby making compatibility across multiple viewing platforms and GUIs problematic.
Unfortunately, current technology does not allow multimedia/video files to be successfully incorporated into complete scenes and/or web page environments where they can be viewed as an integral part of that scene or environment. Thus, whenever a viewer wants to see a video or multimedia presentation file on the Internet, the viewer is presented with a separate "pop-up" window in which the video is played. This window normally contains the same type of button controls that are present on a VHS video player (i.e., play, stop, rewind, etc.) giving the viewer the option to re-play portions of the video, fast-forward past other portions and stop the video whenever the viewer feels like it. This "pop-up" window can be viewed after downloading the presentation file to a desktop computer or via a streaming media engine which means that the window is always implemented, or viewed, as a stand-alone object. Whether the video is broadcast live or post-produced, it resides in its own frame--the window--on its own page, as a stand-alone image or within a separate HTML table. See FIG. 1.
Because the typical "pop-up" window is separate from the page layout and is not an integral part of the scene or environment of the page layout, the entire viewing experience is limited and appears disconnected from the rest of the page layout. Unfortunately the state-of-the-art commercially available systems do not allow the use of multimedia presentations within web page designs, nor the embedding of multimedia presentations within graphics specifically designed around the multimedia presentation to create a desired web page environment. Thus, there is a need for businesses to be able to integrate multimedia/video presentations within the graphics of web page layouts in order that viewers will associate the multimedia/video presentation with the company and its products.
Furthermore, the "pop-up" window arrangement allows the viewer to control the viewing of the presentation. Often the companies who have spent the time and money to design the web page would prefer that they could control the presentation. For example, they may want the viewer to be required to view the entire presentation in the desired context. Thus, there is a need for multimedia/video presentations over the web where the viewing experience is controlled by the web designer.
In addition, the quality of the viewing experience of most multimedia/video presentations is dependent upon which browser, application, operating system or platform is being used by the viewer. Therefore, there is a need for multimedia/video presentations over the web that are independent of the viewer's browser, application, operating system or platform.
The need to include multimedia/video presentations within the overall computer environment is exemplified by web sites available to preview movies prior to either seeing the movie or purchasing the video. Current previewing sites, such as Blockbuster.com, allow viewers to select the movie they want to preview. Once a movie or video has been selected, a pop-up window will appear that contains trailer information. However, the viewer is denied a more realistic theater-like experience such as would be experienced if the viewer were to view the movie in a virtual theater. This situation has developed a need to create a full "theater-like" experience for the viewer in which the viewer can sit in a virtual theater to preview the selected movies.